Nauticam Olympus OM-D flooded

My new OMD Nauticam housing flooded on my fourth dive. I was using the housing with the dome port and 8mm fisheye lens.

Fortunately, because I surfaced immediately after the alarm went off and the camera is splash proof, it was fine. I replaced the housing o-ring and the dome port o-ring with the spares provided and made sure there was no dust anywhere. I took the housing for another dive without the camera, just the empty housing. At 20meters (60 feet), while I was pressing and playing with the various buttons, the leak alarm went off again. When I surfaced, the housing was not completely flooded but had quite a bit of water inside.

My dealer confirmed that the housing has a leak, but after 1 month still has not been able to detect the exact source. He suspects that the leak may be from one of the o-ring buttons, not the main o-ring oder dome port o-ring.

Has anyone experienced any similar problems with their OMD housing? I am really disappointed that my brand new housing already has a leak issue.

Could you possibly post a few more details like how much water was in the housing and for how long and how is the non weather proofed lens because I am really interested to find someone who has tested the OMD weather proofing even if only in fresh water. Thanks.

Very surprised to hear you've a leaky control. In all my time in underwater photography I can still count on a few fingers the number of housing floods I have seen or heard about through housing controls. Thank goodness for the weather sealed camera and leak alarm saved the day.

It is a surprise for us to know of your case from Wetpixel becuase we haven't heard such from any dealer. We are going to take this very serious as it is unacceptable for us that your case has not been solved for a month.

The 8mm fisheye is not weather sealed. Because the housing did not completely flood and I tilted the camera upwards as soon as the alarm went off, the water did not seem to get into the bayonet connection between the 8mm and camera body.

It took me between 5-10 minutes to ascend from 15 meters, get my dive gear off and open the housing. The housing was wet inside, but not completely flooded. The OMD camera bottom was also wet, I used tissues to dry it off as best I could and it worked fine. The 8mm fisheye did not seem wet at all. I was lucky that the water seems to have trickled in in small amounts, rather than a full blown flood.

I took the camera up to 60 meters (200 feet) on the first 3 dives (trimix) and had no problems with the housing at that depth. But on these first dives, I was only using the shutter release button and on/off button and did not touch any other controls. On the forth dive I was not deep, so I was playing around with all the other functions/buttons and getting accustomed to the controls. I was in particular playing with the switch that switches between EVF and back LCD when the alarm went off. But I can't tell if that is the precise source of the leak.

My dealer has given me his personal (and well used) Nauticam housing in the meantime, no problems with that. Overall, I think the Nauticam is a wonderful housing and the camera has produced fantastic results with the 8mm lens. I hope to find out as soon as possible what the problem is, as nobody else seems to have had issues with their housing.

Edward, thank you. I will send you an email, as I am otherwise very happy with my dealer and don't want to hurt his reputation. He immediately gave me his personal housing to use while looking into my housing issue. Thanks.

Update: Nauticam has given me a brand new housing and taken back my leaking housing for examination. I am really happy how fast Nauticam handled this issue, this is great customer service. I have not heard of any other leaking OMD housings, mine seems to be the only one and Nauticam is looking into it. I am really looking forward to diving with the housing again.